Overview

An Act of the Legislature (the “Act”) dated July 31, 1989 granted exclusive rights for the importation, sale and distribution of petroleum and petroleum products within the Republic of Liberia to the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).

Section 1 of the Act states that “The importation of all petroleum products for the Liberian domestic market, for internal use within the Republic of Liberia, and/or for transaction through the commerce of Liberia, shall be the sole and exclusive right of LPRC, and that NO entity, individual, concessionaires, public or private corporation nor any governmental entity, foreign or otherwise, shall import petroleum products into the territorial confines of the Republic of Liberia, except with the written consent of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company duly approved by the President of Liberia.”

The LPRC has encouraged Liberians and foreign investors to invest in the importation of petroleum products – Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) – as a means of creating a middle-class society. Presently, there are nine registered importers who ensure that adequate petroleum products are on the Liberian market which are:

• West Oil
• Total Liberia Ltd.
• Aminata & Sons
• National Petroleum
• Srimex Enterprise
• Conex Petroleum
• Petro Trade
• Lib-Afric 
• Monrovia Oil Trading Corporation (MOTC)

All fuel is imported from Abidjan. LPRC has allocated 2 tanks to Total Liberia Ltd with a capacity of 4,000,000 gallons each. Only Total Liberia Ltd is authorised to import JET A1 into the country.

Information may also be found at: http://www.mytravelcost.com/petrol-prices/  which is updated monthly.

For more information, please see the following links:

4.1 Liberia Government Contact List

4.7 Liberia Fuel Provider Contact List

Fuel Pricing

Fuel  prices are monitored by the Ministry of Commerce which fixes the prices on monthly basis based on international prices after consultation with the LPRC and the distributors.

Seasonal Variations 

There are no seasonal variations.

Fuel Transportation

The major challenge is the bad condition of the roads which make it difficult to reach all areas. Some transporters are dedicated to one distributor, such as TOTAL which has 29 selling points in the country. The current capacity can meet the local needs as well as any increases in demand from the humanitarian community. The road conditions persist during the rainy season. There is a government plan to pave the road from Ganta to Tapita, Nimba County. There is a Chinese vessel managed by HYLAEA Shipping Inc that also transports fuel to the southeast of the country during very bad road conditions.

Standards, Quality and Testing

LPRC is the entity responsible of regulating, controlling, and testing all the fuel imported to Liberia with its own laboratories. LPRC also manages the storage of petroleum products in the country.

The local transport market in Liberia is concentrated in Monrovia. Companies vary in sizes and the majority of truck companies are formed in associations or unions. The local transporters have a good local knowledge of road conditions during the rainy and dry seasons. Not all companies operate throughout all of Liberia on a regular basis; however, this can be negotiated with the local transporters based on the amount to be transported and depending on the destination, especially during the rainy season. For security reasons, and for reconnaissance of the roads, many local transporters use escorts. Some UN agencies and NGO use their own fleet (WFP, for example). 

For more information, please see the following link: 4.8 Liberia Transporter Contact List

On 25 June, Liberian President Sirleaf signed into law the Decent Work Bill, the country’s first labour law since the 1950s. The Liberian Federation of Labour Unions (LFLU) is a national trade union center in Liberia. It was formed in 1980 by the merging of the United Workers' Congress and the Liberia Federation of Trade Unions. The LFLU is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. The legal working hours are 8 hours. Work in excess of the number of hours shall be paid for at a rate not less than fifty percent above the normal rate. A lack of qualified youth creates a bottleneck in the supply of labour in the professional occupations sought by employers. There are “hard-to-fill” vacancies identified by employers mainly in the area of higher skilled professionals that youth have no skills and competence to occupy.  For professional occupations, there is an expectation on the part of employers for job applicants holding tertiary education. This preference is slightly less for production workers. Also, the lack of entrepreneurial training and the weakness of entrepreneurial culture within the system make limited access to gaining jobs.

There are a number of private cellular companies with good coverage in Liberia as well as 4G and 3G services. Registration of sim cards is fairly straightforward and data plans are available. There is also access to fibre connection in Monrovia with Libtelco being the main provider. However, outside of the capital, the infrastructure is reliant on microwave links that are hampered with power issues. There is still a reliance on VSAT technology in remote areas of Liberia.  

Telecommunications Regulations

The government control is not very strict in Liberia when it comes to regulations as well as satellite communications equipment importation for the humanitarian community. Rules were especially relaxed during the peak of the Ebola emergency response and UN agencies were using allocated frequencies from the past.  

Existing Humanitarian Telecoms Systems

UN agencies rely heavily on UNMIL country infrastructure for security telecommunications and Internet services. There is currently an MoU between UNMIL and UN agencies to provide services across most of Liberia.  The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) has provided services to NGOs in the locations listed in the table below. UNDSS is the lead inter-agency for managing security telecommunications. ETC will handover the existing security telecommunications infrastructure to UNDSS by end of December 2015.

The Liberia market is small and the country imports more than 90% of its food needs. Rubber and palm oil dominate the agriculture scene and many farmers orient their production towards these two products. Imported rice is duty free, therefore it is difficult for local rice producers to compete against it. It is difficult to procure on the local market as the offer is very limited. The challenges of food suppliers and other small and medium size companies, which compose 96% of the market, are numerous from the high price of electricity, the difficulty to obtain financial credit to the difficulty to find skilled staff in managerial level and all levels.

Iron ore, rubber and timber dominate exports; these three commodities make up more than 80% of the export trade. Other exports include diamonds, gold, and palm oil.

Liberia's main imports are fuel (35 percent of total imports), machinery (25 percent) foodstuffs and manufactured goods.

For information on Liberia Food Suppliers, accommodation and other markets contact details, please see the following link: 4.9 Liberia Additional Service Provision Contact List

The service providers in Liberia are limited due to the small economy. The market is small and not all items are available in the country.  

For information on Liberia Additional services providers contact details, please see the following links:

4.9 Liberia Additional Service Provision Contact List

4.10 Liberia Producers, Wholesalers and Retailers

Accommodation

Accommodation/housing are available in the country and the country has the capacity to house and support a large influx of demand (as was shown during the Ebola outbreak and the influx of international humanitarian agencies in the country). The prices are high and it is more difficult to find accommodation outside Monrovia. There are a number of hotels with a good quality of services and facilities. 

Financial Service Providers

Banks, Forex, accountancy companies are present in Liberia. 

Ecobank

The Ecobank Group is a full-service bank focused on Middle Africa. It provides wholesale, retail, investment and transactional banking services to governments, financial institutions, multinationals, local companies, SMEs and individuals. It is a leading pan-African bank with operations in 36 countries across the continent, more than any other bank in the world. It currently operates in countries in West, Central , East and Southern Africa, namely Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Group also has a licenced operation in Paris and representative offices in Beijing, Dubai, Johannesburg, London and Luanda.

See more at: http://www.ecobank.com/

Freight Forwarding Agents

Freight forwarding agents are available in the country and they offer a good quality of service. They are mainly based in Monrovia.  

Handling Equipment Rentals

There are available companies for Handling equipment rentals and also for heavy equipment.  

Postal and Courier Services

The Liberian post provides the services of receiving and delivering postal services in the country, and for this objective, a total of 25 post offices so far have been either rehabilitated or newly constructed in thirteen of the 15 Counties. Saclepea, Nimba County and Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County are being made ready for use by the Liberian people. It takes between 5 to 10 days to deliver a post. International couriers are available in the country.  

Publishing/Printing Service Providers

There are few publishing/ Printing service providers in Liberia.  

Taxi Companies

There are no taxi companies in the country. Taxi cars are usually old and poorly maintained.  

Vehicle Rental

There are a good number of vehicle rental companies in Monrovia with all type of vehicles which can be rented with a driver.  

Electricity and Power 

In order to overcome the critical situation of the electricity sector in Liberia, the Government, with support from donor community, has been engaged in a number of development projects in the sector. Funding (US $230 million) has already been secured from the Governments of Norway, Germany and Liberia, and the European Investment Bank to restore the Mount Coffee Hydro plant. The 80MW (wet season peak) plant is expected to become fully operational by June 2016 with the first commercial power unit capable of producing up to 22 MW of power restored in December, 2015. 

[1] Hydroelectric power, Thermal power… 

Waste Management and Disposal Providers

Monrovia is the capital city of Liberia and is better organized in the service delivery and management of municipal solid waste compare to other cities in Liberia. Waste Collection services provided by the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) extends to the Cities of Paynesville and Brewerville. This metropolitan area is referred to as the Greater Monrovia Area. With co-funding from the World Bank and the Government of Liberia, in 2007- 2015 under works executed by the MCC two solid waste transfer stations and a sanitary landfill were completed and have remained functional. The Greater Monrovia Area is divided into 2 regions. The Northern Region is managed by private contractor Caspean Holdings and the Southern Region is managed by a private contractor, LIBRA Sanitation. The landfill is operated and management by ZBJ Inc. These efforts combined to collect approximately 50 percent of the total estimated generation of 720 tons per day in greater Monrovia.

The current landfill in Whein Town is approximately 18 kilomeers from the city center and has a remaining airspace for 1.5 years. Suitable land for a new landfill site for Monrovia is being acquired from private owners. The land is located along the western drive from Monrovia approximately 24 kilometers.  Whein Town Landfill is the only sanitary landfill site known of in Liberia.

Out of Monrovia, only two cities have started using private waste service providers who signed MOUs with the City Corporations. Kakata in Margibi and Buchanan in Grand Bassa are the two cities serviced by private waste service providers: NC Sanitors and Zoomlion Liberia respectively. The rest of the cities are serviced by the city corporations with inadequate or often no capacities to do the job. There is a complete lack of waste collection facilities and professional staff. In these cities the practice is uncontrolled and open dumping there is no managed dump sites. Access to open dump sites is also difficult because of the bad road conditions and the lack of the appropriate transport systems. These opened dump sites are also poorly located and are likely to trigger serious environmental impacts.

Primary solid waste collection in Monrovia is the responsibility for Community Based Enterprises (CBEs) contracted by the MCC or the City of Paynesville. These CBEs are restricted to locations and the types of clients, (i.e. Households and small businesses by MCC standard). They often carried pushcarts or wheelbarrows form door-to-door to collect waste and empty into them into skips / bins provided by secondary collected hire by the MCC to collect and empty the skips through the transfer stations to the landfill. Secondary waste contractors in Monrovia are requires to provide specialized equipment specified by the City for service delivery.     

Recycling in Liberia is very limited and has just started getting off the ground. The purchase of metals (iron) and hard plastic scraps have attracted the recycling industry.

Waste Disposal - Non Hazardous 

There are a few solid waste collection service providers in the Liberia. Their capacities at all levels require strengthening in order to be competitive with regional counterparts. These firms are, however, confined to Monrovia and not willing to venture in other cities.

Waste Disposal - Hazardous 

There are no restrictions regarding the disposal of used motor oil, fuel, electronics, computers.

There are no procedures nor processes for disposing of waste water.